Gone to the Birds: Vending Machines Designed to Save the Okinawan Rail

In the
Yanbaru region of Okinawa, Japan—not far from the water source for the
Coca-Cola Bottling Company’s Urasoe factory—vending machines are doing more
than dispensing drinks: they’re saving the endangered Okinawan rail bird.

The
Okinawan rail is a flightless bird living only in Yanbaru, the northernmost
region of the Okinawan mainland. Announced as an academically unknown bird, its
existence was first confirmed in 1981 before it was designated a protected
endangered species in 1982. However, despite its protective status, mystery
still surrounds the species and its decreasing numbers. Even the most
basic data on the rail has yet to be recorded.
Because of these circumstances, a revolutionary new research method was recently
proposed.

That method
– to use vending machines! And so began the joint efforts of Coca-Cola Japan, Coca-Cola
Bottling Okinawa, and the Okinawa Conservation & Animal Welfare Trust.
Together they created the Endangered Okinawan Rail Biological Survey.